Cuba: Comparison--Castro Blames U.S. for Defections

PA1207042696 Havana Cubavision Network in Spanish, 0132 GMT 12 Jul
96
PA1207042696
Havana Cubavision Network
Spanish
BFN
[Comparative version of speech by Cuban President Fidel
Castro at a ceremony to bid farewell to athletes
representing Cuba at the Olympic Games in Atlanta; on 10
July, in Havana -- originally filed from Havana Tele Rebelde
and Cubavision Networks in Spanish at 0030 GMT on 11 July as
PA1107043696 and adds and published on pages 2-5 of the 11
July Latin America DAILY REPORT; explanatory notes describe
differences from original version]

[FBIS Translated Text] [Applause] Do not applaud too
much, or you will be tired when you arrive at the Olympic
Games.

Dear comrades: Can you hear me clearly? We will talk
as a family, okay? This will not be a speech on occasion of
your departure, when there is plenty of love, kisses, good
wishes, and patriotism. Talking as a family means analyzing
realities, in private, not in front of the stairs as you are
about to board the plane. Besides, the sun is very hot, and
it is scalding, so it would not be the best place to say a
few things.

We have come here to see you off to the Olympic Games.
Are these, however, like any other Olympic Games? A simple
event? Plain and common Olympic Games? No. These are the
most difficult Olympic Games in which we will participate,
not only because we are going to compete in sports -- they
will be difficult sports-wise -- but because of the
conditions and the country where those Olympic Games are
going to be held, under hostile conditions [clearing
indistinct words from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision
version] against our country and our delegation. There will
be attempts to hurt us as much as possible, and above all to
deal moral blows against the country and the delegation. All
resources, schemes, tricks, and cleverness will be used
against our delegation. For that reason, more than saying
that we are sending... [pauses] that we want to send a
delegation of athletes, I would prefer to say that we want
to send a delegation of patriots.

I would like you to be aware of all this. Wasn't there
a sheet of paper? A small piece of paper, over there. What
is that piece of paper doing over there? First of all, you
must be aware of everything the country has done for sports.
This is done every year in Cuba and it is currently being
done during these difficult years, not in sports, in the
INDER [National Institute for Sports, Physical Education,
and Recreation] because this does not include the Higher
Education Ministry and the Education Ministry -- 115 million
pesos. [rewording for clarity and to clear words indistinct
from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version] That is
the budget we have this year for sports.

There are 100 sports schools in the country, which are
attended by 24,000 students. There are 32,000 professors
teaching physical education and sports. All those professors
have been trained in the sports schools and institutes and
the Higher Institute for Sports.

Some 11,000 sports facilities remain operating. Not
even during the special period has one professor been
dismissed, nor has one single sports school or sports
facility been closed. They charge. Yes, they charge peanuts.
What we pay at sports facilities is just for fun, nothing
else. What we charge for that is minimal compared to what
all that costs. It is a right. It is not [clearing
indistinct words from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision
version] for business, nor was it ever a business. This is a
noble activity of our people, of our revolution to give the
opportunity for our country to occupy fifth place in the
world today, and where all children -- without exception,
regardless of who their parents are, without discrimination
-- have the opportunity to practice sports, and so that the
entire people have the opportunity to practice sports.

Who are those 24,000 students? Whose children are
they? Where do you come from? From what kind of bourgeois
class, from what rich, what landowners, from what owner of
sugar complexes are you? [clearing indistinct words from
original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version] You are simply
the sons of the people, and all are sons of the people.

No country has done more than our country for the
people and for sports, amid threats and blockade, and more
blockade, and more laws, and more measures to prevent us
from advancing. We are against the most powerful and rich
superpower of the world. Our small besieged country has
resisted. You go to the heart of that empire to compete now.
All the odds will be against you. Athletes are loved by the
people, who offer them support, love, and confidence.
[clearing 13-second passage indistinct and indistinct words
from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version] Our noble
country is entitled to expect from its athletes and all
those who have to do with sports exemplary, honest, and
patriotic behavior. This conduct has been displayed by
athletes throughout the years from the beginning, since the
times we had to make threats that we could reach Puerto
Rican shores by swimming.

As great examples, athletes continue in the
insurmountable process. We are living, however, in a new age
during which sports have been commercialized more and more
because of great economic powers. Standards and rules have
been broken in the Olympics in order to introduce
professionalism into sports. Unfortunately, this has brought
about some consequences.

I believe that athletes, their trainers, their
instructors, everybody, the INDER, and every superior
[clearing indistinct words and rephrasing per better
reception from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version]
should have a self-critical attitude. They should demand
more from themselves. Just as everything else during our
revolution, our sports have worked with morality as their
foundation, but not upon materialism or money. Never would
we use hypocritical words to lure athletes or workers in the
athletics sector. [rephrasing per better reception from
original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version] If money were
the foundation, we would not have the athletic movement that
we do today. Neither would we have achieved the glory we
have achieved so many years. [clearing indistinct words from
original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version] We should
accomplish this based upon morality, conscience, patriotism,
and integrity, because there have always been athletes, they
always have, who in recent times have been lured by
mercenariness, by commercialism, and by greed. These
athletes have committed the villainous act of betraying
their country.

You know what betrayal is. It goes back to Jesus
Christ's days when, as the Bible tells us, Judas betrayed
him. There have been Judases throughout history. We met many
during the revolution. On the days of our clandestine fight,
there were Judases who sold their fighting comrades. There
were Judases who were in exile. We met Judases in the Sierra
Maestra. This individual was in such a position that he was
unable to stand the hardships of that fight. Therefore, they
laid down their rifle and left, they left. [rephrasing per
better reception from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision
version]

Throughout the revolution, we have had Judases in all
sectors, including in the sports sector, where it possibly
hurts people the most. It hurts them terribly and inflicts
on them an enormous damage. [clearing indistinct words from
original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version] That there are
Judases among the athletes, when the people put all their
trust in them, all their love, all their support, freely,
because they enjoy sports, because of the pride they feel
for sports. Sports are the reason why some go to stadiums.
Millions who participate in the thrill of sports through
television and radio, moment by moment, minute by minute.
This is something that hits very close to home, our
country's most sensitive cords. [rephrasing and clearing
indistinct words per better reception from original Tele
Rebelde and Cubavision version]

Those who betray the warmest and purest sentiments of
the people, are not just hurting those sentiments, they are
hurting the country. They are encouraging the enemy who
wants to destroy us, who is blockading us, harassing us. It
encourages the enemy to continue onward with all his
misdeeds against our fatherland. They betray the prestige of
the country. They betray the country's sports. They betray
their comrades. They betray everything! That is why if we
recall the history of our sports, the heroic history that
has given prestige to Cuba, you will understand the damage
that is caused, in every sense, by a traitor -- he who the
revolution offered all its support, all its aid for the
development of his abilities; he for whom the country
rejoiced. They betray the nation, the loftiest sentiments of
the nation. That is why, more than actual gold medals,
silver medals, or bronze medals, we are interested in moral
medals that the athletes can win. [clearing indistinct words
and rephrasing per better reception from original Tele
Rebelde and Cubavision version] The honor of our athletes
interests us more than medals, the concept of self an
athlete may have, and I cannot imagine what concept of self
a traitor can have.

The enemy taps on those weak points. That is why the
development of the muscles of the soul is more important
than the development of the body's muscles. That is a task
not just for athletes. It is the task for instructors,
coaches, and an all. And history will never forgive a
traitorous athlete, trainer, coach, or manager.

I think I could not bid you farewell today without
saying this. There will be no attempts made to bribe
athletes from any of the other 100 countries that will
participate in the Olympics. They will not be asked to
betray their fatherland, their sports, and their comrades.
They can go there and calmly wander around, mostly because
very few of them have the quality of our athletes. [clearing
indistinct words and rephrasing per better reception from
original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version] The majority
of the countries do not even have the resources and their
governments do not bother to develop sports. What they want
is the publicity. [clearing indistinct words and rephrasing
per better reception from original Tele Rebelde and
Cubavision version] The idea is to overwhelm our athletes
with the ostentatious wealth they have accumulated at the
expense of the world's exploitation.

They want to daze them, overwhelm them by showing them
a marvelous -- albeit cynical -- world with more money.
[rephrasing per better reception from original Tele Rebelde
and Cubavision version] In the sports market that has been
developed in recent times, certain sports have more
commercial potential while others practically do not have
any. These sports are not profitable.

While our country was preparing for the Olympic Games,
they were drafting plans and more plans to see how they
could get the athletes to desert and how they could deprive
us of the best athletes. One of their strategies was to
deprive our baseball team of its best players as they could
not defeat our team under any circumstance. They wanted to
strip our team of pitchers. They knew they could not defeat
us in any other way. Thus, they bribed more than just one
pitcher. They bribed the team's best pitcher. He was a
person who was well respected and considered the best. We
are talking about pitcher Rolando Arrojo, who disappeared.
Obviously, he was bribed and we know who participated. They
were scared because they could not defeat our baseball team
and they bribed Osvaldo, they bribed (Livan), and they
bribed Arrojo. [clearing indistinct words and rephrasing per
better reception from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision
version]

It reminds me of the years in which they tried to leave
us without doctors. We had 6,000 doctors and they took
3,000. We now have 60,000 doctors. [correcting figure from
"70,000" per better reception in original Tele Rebelde and
Cubavision version]

We have had our share of Judases at all times. They
were bribed even before the Olympic Games started because
[laughs] their market value would have gone up after the
games. [clearing indistinct words and rephrasing per better
reception from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version]
They could have been paid a lot more afterward, but it
happened before the Olympics. The idea was to demoralize the
team, which of course, has had a worthy reaction. They have
not hesitated in condemning the action, the act of treason
on the eve of the Olympics. [rephrasing per better reception
from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version]

They also bribed boxers before the games. They knew
they could not defeat us in baseball, they could not beat us
in hitting homeruns, doubles, and triples. They want to
defeat us by investing millions. They want to defeat us with
their millions. We only have one weapon against that, men
like Teofilo Stevenson. There was no money capable of
bribing him. Men like Omar Linares. There was no money
capable of bribing him, although they offered him large
sums. Men like Felix Savon, whom they offered enormous
amounts, plus others in sports such as baseball, boxing, or
women's volleyball in which we have clear superiority. They
did everything possible to deprive us of our best athletes;
and they will do everything to deprive us of a medal, to
deprive us of victory, to demoralize our athletes, to
demoralize the country, and to get the enemy to threaten us
and harass us even more. [clearing indistinct words and
rephrasing per better reception from original Tele Rebelde
and Cubavision version]

The comrade who spoke on your behalf said you will
never betray the memory of those who sacrificed themselves,
the memory of those who have fallen. There are many things
that attack and offend us and that profane the memory of
those who have fought, of those who have fallen, and of
those who are fighting. They are offending those who have to
be cutting and carrying cane by hand in a harvest such as
this one, in which the food for the people and the resources
for the athletes are produced. They are offending the
teachers who educate our children amid harsh and difficult
conditions. [clearing indistinct words from original Tele
Rebelde and Cubavision version] They are offending those who
are saving people's lives in hospitals. They are offending
those who work in the heat of the furnaces, all our
hardworking people, the fighters who defend the fatherland,
the internationalists, who provided so much service to the
fatherland, and those who were killed while providing those
services.

We must bear these things in mind -- you, the trainers,
the athletes, and INDER, because we must gain some
experience from all this. You cannot wage a self-sacrificing
struggle in this country to train any athlete, or anyone,
who is capable of such infamy, such a betrayal of the
homeland, because it would be unfair to thus repay the
people who have done the most for sports and sportsmen.

It is necessary that each of you think about these
things when you are out on the track, the court, the field,
or wherever; think about what you are defending; think about
the things for which you struggle; and be capable, at that
supreme moment of your effort, of giving all that a human
being can give -- and what a human being can give in this
case is unlimited.

No one who is capable of appreciating these values,
this spirit should ever be swayed by the temptation of
driving a sharp knife into the backs of their people, who
trust you so much. We have done everything possible for the
athletes within this difficult special period. No one
believed we would be able to support the athletes' movement
and all the efforts we have exerted to support them
[clearing indistinct words from original Tele Rebelde and
Cubavision version], with everyone's effort. Even the
athletes and the instructors, who go to other countries and
give INDER part of what they receive, because INDER has no
hard currency and has annual expenses. Part of these
expenses have been paid by collecting funds that are used
for the organization's basic expenses, awards for the teams.
[rephrasing and clearing indistinct words per better
reception from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version]

This has served to encourage all the athletes because,
although it is true that some teams have a relatively high
income, others have no income at all; and no athlete was
forgotten when it was time to allocate a larger or smaller
incentive. However, everyone made a special contribution to
prepare for these Olympiads and to seek food -- for the
number of calories and proteins that all the national team
needed. We had to make sure. We knew they should be strong,
[clearing indistinct words and rephrasing per better
reception from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision version]
they should lack nothing with regard to clothes and other
material conditions, even during the special period, when
there is a shortage of things, and when convertible currency
may be needed to buy medicine for a child.

Obviously, we have made sure that no child lacks
medicine, but you bear witness, you have lived in one of the
most difficult times in this country, in the defense of its
independence, in the defense of its integrity, in the
defense of its ideas.

We are attacked because the powerful empire regards as
enemies those who want justice for the world; they do
nothing against those who are dominated, those who do not
care about education, health, and sports. Their objective is
sweeping from the Earth's surface those who have given an
example -- while performing your activities, you have
witnessed the example our people have given, of their
capability to gain fifth place in the world -- by buying
athletes. [rewording for clarity and to clear words
indistinct from original Tele Rebelde and Cubavision
version] You have witnessed our support for sports and our
country's pride in sports. We must preserve that pride, that
honor.

We are human beings, and all human beings have defects,
just as we have some virtues. Human beings, however, can be
motivated to give the best of themselves, they can make
their utmost efforts, and they can appreciate their dignity,
their honor, and the love they receive from their people.
The love and confidence from the people cannot be shunned.

It is with this spirit that we want you to struggle,
all of you, in these Olympic Games that will be so
difficult, which will take place in the heart of the Empire
that despises us, in the heart of the monster. I am not
referring to U.S. citizens -- many times deceived through
vile lies that are written and published -- but to the
mechanisms and the system that prevails in that country, a
corrupt and corruptive system. [rewording for clarity and to
clear words indistinct from original Tele Rebelde and
Cubavision version] I am referring to the extraordinary
abundance of resources they have which they use to commit
immoralities and injustices, and to continue waging the
battle against this small country, which is shameful.

In boxing, it is tantamount to a fight between 20 kg
and 100 kg. No, more than that, between 10 kg and 200 kg.
This little David, however, of 5 kg or 10 kg, has a spirit
of hundreds of kilograms, of thousands of kilograms. They
have not been able to bring us to our knees in any field;
they have not been able to take over Cuba, thanks to the
heroic attitude of our people and our combatants.

Let us despise those who sell themselves for 12 coins,
like those coins Judas was said to have received for his
treason. Let us vindicate the honor of sports, and let us
return as the Spartans did in the old days with the shield
or on the shield.

The flag we have given you today is not to sell in
pieces or to let anyone tear a single piece from it. The
flag we have delivered to you today represents the
fatherland, dignity, courage, and heroism. It represents
honor. It will be the duty of each one of you, without
exception, no matter what happens; it will be your duty to
bring back that flag with glory and without stains.
Socialism or death! Fatherland or death! We will win!
[applause]

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